>> expecting to see mika and joe tomorrow dressed in all weather leather like trinity in "the matrix." >> all right, neo, i will wear the nose ring. you wear the leather. >> leather. >> i'm going to go shopping. i need a dress. >> what is next, willie? >> i tell you what? >> three, two. here's chuck todd. violent anti-american protests over that online video spread to afghanistan while conflicting accounts compete over what really happened in libya. was the death of four americans the result of a spontaneous attack or a carefully planned assault and is politics driving the official answer? after a turbulent week, mitt romney shifts strategy with a renewed focus on what woe do as president. with time running down is it enough to change the course of his campaign? and what's with all team romney

infighting going public? not something that. happens with wing campaigns in september. four years since wall street collapsed. now the market has come roaring back s that recovery a sign of real health or just another lucky spin of the weechlt our deep dive today. good morning from washington. this is daily rundown, i'm chuck todd. la shana tova. protest continue dying down. if itten it is, could put the campaign on the offensive for the long-term and become a problem in the election. on sunday, in the third insider attack in as many days, afghan police turned their guns on u.s. and nato troops, killing four

american soldiers who were called to assist an afghan police checkpoint. also over the weekend, u.s. ordered nonessential u.s. embassy staff to leave the sudan and tunesia, the site of some of the most violent protest. 50 marines were deployed to yemen to secure the compound n libya, an fbi investigation into the attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi under way. sunday, libyan and u.s. officials had two very different versions of what happened. >> the way these perpetrators acted and moved, this leaves us with no doubt that this was preplanned. >> what happened in ben gghazi s a reaction to what had transpired hours before in cairo. >> as you see, two different versions of what supposedly happened in benghazi. protests plead spread into the weekend, the romney campaign argued the crisis exposes a stark contrast between the two

candidates. >> if we project weakness, they come. if we are strong, they are -- our adversaries will not test us and our allies will respect us. >> ambassador susan rice fired back yesterday on "meet the press." >> with respect to this i think, vacuous charge of weakness, we have des mated al qaeda. osama bin laden is dead. i spend every day up at the united nations where i have to interact with 192 other countries, i know how with the united states is viewed. >> but the white house is facing growing questions about whether violent protests mean the president's early outreach to the muslim world has produced few results. here is former new york city mayor, rudy giuliani. >> what we see is the president's policies? the middle east falling apart. i mean, the reality is the president got elected to reset our relationship in the middle east. we might as well not have had the reset. >> rice dismissed that criticism and similar questions from reporters. >> we are not impotent.

we are not even less popular to challenge that assessment. i don't know on what basis you make that judgment. last weeks, mitt romney's campaign gave every indication they wanted to launch a foreign policy debate. some parts of the republican party believed he was on to something, arguing relent its focus on the american economy the last seven months hasn't sold the american people. bill crystal said -- there is still a debate whether the foreign policy push takes the campaign off the message.

stuart stevens says they will focus on issues including foreign policy, the tone in washington. the big unifying question will now be can we do better on every front? in a new ad out this morning, romney did what he possibly should have done from the outside, makes a national a billion how he can improve the economy. >> my plan is to help the middle class. trade has to work for america. that means crack down on cheaters like china and open new markets. next, got to bat budget. got to cut the def i is. >> the ad has a feel of a relaunch. will this argument break through, given romney is starting with a story only coming out of losing campaigns, who will get the blame for bloke the republican party's best chance at knocking off an

incumbent president in nearly 30 years? the political story tells us what we knew, stuart steven sass lightning rod and internal disputes over campaign strategy. but this story goes into some detail, revealing the campaign went through two sets of speechwriters for romney's convention speech before scrapping both speech to go with a speech could be.ed together by stevens and romney himself that speech left out any mention of afghanistan. this is going to be one of the things allow some critics to pile on. this shut type of story went public and maybe the folks that went public with their criticisms of stevens think they are helping the campaign. not the type of thing that helps campaigns. trust me. romney will kick off with a speech in los angeles to hispanic voters. romney will try to amplify his economic message, arguing latino have been disproportionately

hurt by the economy and says when it comes to immigration, politics has been put ahead of people for too long. i will work with republicans and democrats to permanently fix our immigration system. he will be sitting down with telemun telemundo, our colleague over there, jose diaz-balart. dealing with china is one issue the or 'bama campaign has been very sensitive and you the romney campaign aggressive. the cleveland plains dealer first reported today in ohio, the president will announce that the white house will ask the world trade organization, the wto, to demand that china stop subsidizing auto parts made for export arguing the process undercuts manufacturers in ohio and elsewhere by reducing the cost of chinese auto parts, the second china announcement we can remember the president making while campaigning in ohio in just the last month. finally, remember three weeks ago went obama campaign officials and surrogates had a difficult time answering whether americans were better off now than four years ago? on the fourth anniversary of the collapse of lehman brothers, the

obama campaign is up with an ad showing that hesitancy is gone. >> keep saying it. >> this president did:not tell us you are better off today than when he teak office. >> here we were in 2008. >> worst financial collapse in the nation. >> workers laid off. >> 30 months of private sector job growth p. >> want to go back to the same old policies that got us in trouble in the first place u. >> we are not going back. we are moving forward. >> using clinton in the speech, you get the sense that after the clinton speech, they decided they can make this argument. back to the plate cal process story that's driving the day, the romney campaign finger pointing. this basic question, how could someone campaign on managerial experience run a billion dollar enterprise something as basic as writing a convention speech is chaotic.

joining me now debut cannon. let me start we know campaigning all along. you have been a campaign manager, you know how those things can happen, not everybody agrees this is september, seems a little lake lathe in the game to be publicly finger pointing. >> this story is just ridiculous. i have been, as you said, in many presidential campaigns, the key to a good one and governor romney is absolutely clear about this, he doesn't want yes people. he wants people who are going to tell him exactly what he thinks. off good table, a good strong discussion and a final decision made by the governor. as a result, we had an outstanding convention. his speech enormously well received. we felt extremely good. all the ten times i have been to republican conventions, i have never seen three back-to-back strong days lining i did at this convention. who leaks a speech excerpt of a speech that didn't get -- what is going on there? >> who writes that story? who cares? is it a surprise that maybe other people felt this paragraph should go in or this paragraph

should go in? somebody ladies and gentlemens it, somebody who wanted that part of the speech in. it doesn't matter, the final product is what happened. that is the governor. he made the decision, as leader would and stayed this is what i want to say down there even in the reagan speeches, my brother put some of them together, who made the final decision? who crossed out paragraphs? it was ronald reagan that did. our speech, the governor's speech was outstanding that evening, extraordinarily well saved by all sectors. we certainly did get a bump what we saw as a result now, we have the majority of americans feel that the governor has a very strong message on the economy, that he is best on the economy, that's key issue. we saw women coming together that felt very, very strongly about this. conner is vat friv just energizeded. our base was energized by the party. look what's happening in the swing states today. we have all the swing states, looks like north carolina is going to fall into our column. we have a democratic state, such

as wisconsin, now is neck in neck. all the swing states are neck in neck now. we are in a very strong position. >> what do you say to the conservative handwriting,s, eric erickson, bill crystal, jennigjr ruben, there is a lot of hand wringing going on among friends of romney. >> one of my positions in the romney campaign is outreach to sonner is vat it was, i meet with them constantly, a majority of them are excited and thrilled, as you can imagine. they were supporting the governor before paul ryan and paul ryan came aboard, they were thrilled. those individuals you just mentioned were very, very strong supporters of what the governor had to say last week during the -- on the libyan situation. every single campaign everybody

wants to be the campaign manager, they want to think they are the best. we have a very good position today, candidate is outstanding, working those states, we have a terrific vice presidential candidate, we have the right message and very strong ads and the poll shows movement. gallup shows us pick up four points since our convention, rasmussen has us picking up six points in the time. the swing states, the movement is ours. they may not be happy because they want us to talk about this or that but -- >> the broader thing that we are getting word that the campaign is going to be broader arguments, hear more of a foreign policy argument as well coming out of the campaign, a little bit of a focus own that, a little bit of the focus where it is not just all about one slice on the economy? >> i think you will. i think it's clear that the american people are looking for somebody who can lead this country to a stronger position nationally and you globally and -- >> so you have to win a larger audience? you can't win this state by state, tough win a larger argument and let the stakes

fall? >> i think the key, of course is going to come down to the swing states here but the argument, the debate you make is for all americans, what are we going to do for the middle class? how do we make america stronger, have greater are respect in this world again, bring us back to a position of strength worldwide? you know, these are issues americans are concerned about. last week was devastating to americans. i mean, we feel that as individuals somehow that why is there such strong anti-american sentiment in the muslim world after all that we've done? and we recognize that the president has failed. his policies and foreign policies failed just like his economic policies failed. >> so your message to eric erickson and these folks -- >> eric has never been with us. many people, conservatives, didn't like us in the primary and we do what you can. you send the message that we think is right. this is governor romney's campaign and he is running it, it is his message. >> it is funny, i have heard this argument. you feel like there are conservatives rooting for mitt

romney in a way that liberals root for mitt romney barack obama? >> as a conservative activist for all these years some them our movement, i think my liberal friends in tell you the same about theirs that are never happy. they are always looking for the mistake you make rather than the seven times that you did unbelievably well. but even eric erickson said the governor's speech was terrific at the convention. he acknowledged that as well as he should. i know that bill crystal acknowledged the strong position the governor took last week on foreign policy, areas they are happy with us. we can't worry about the individuals unhappy. i guarantee conservatives rehn news yasically supporting this president. i have a bunch of meetings to go to -- this governor to be president. there's no question in my mind you the energy momentum is with us. we have the base and now we are moving forward to pingt independents. >> all right, debut cannon, senior in strategist, adviser to the romney campaign. >> delighted to be with you. u.s. and libyan officials at odds over whether the deadly attack that killed u.s.

ambassador chris stevens was premedicated. the latest on the investigation in benghazi. z at anti-american rage spreads what foreign policy changes will this make at the white house?

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the libyan president says 50 people, 5-0, have now been arrested in connection to the assault on the u.s. consulate that killed the american ambassador in libya and three others. he says the attack appears to

have been preplanned. u.s. officials though are pushing back on that. ayman mohyeldin is live in benghazi this morning. the investigation, i know all of your sources are indicating premeditation. the white house and the state department and even the intelligence sources on our end here in washington really pushing back hard saying they don't have evidence to back up the libyan claims. what do you hear? >> well, at this particular time it is difficult to marry the two together but what seems to possibly have happened is a hybrid of the two situations. as you mentioned, the libyan officials here on the ground are saying categorically that this was a preplanned attack, meaning were there were elements, foreign elements that came in ex-employed the security vacuum, began putting in motion a scenario where they wanted to attack either the u.s. consulate or other diplomatic facilities or perhaps even target ambassador stevens himself. when that was going to happen and under what circumstances

remained largely mysterious to the officials here. having said that then, with the spontaneous outbreak of anger and pro-est that happened outside the u.s. consulate on tuesday, september 11th, they may have felt that was the right time to strike. there was a sense of chaos, sympathy to these protesters, the security at the compound may have been a little bit more lax they decided to strike at that precise moment. right now, what we are hearing, according to libyan officials is this was something that was set in the motion. people here on the ground wanted to exploit the security vacuum to carry out ate tack and something thatting anered many libyans we speak to in benghazi and tripoli. this is not something the libyan people wanted to do at as you facility >> >> amman mohyeldin in benghazi following the investigation into things. anti-american protests cropped up in 20 countries, adding more sig began gaston to

the question dividing officials. was it part of a premeditated mission to kill americans. good morning robin. i want to talk to you quickly about the investigation. you and i were talking off camera about how many these investigations take, beirut bombing, the pan am flight 800 a little perspective. >> took two years before the united states actually tracked down the those responsible for pan am 103. the original thought was it was syria and iran. >> for a year, that was the assertion? >> well over a year, tiny little piece evidence, smaller than a fingernail, led to the matching to a bombmaker responsible for an earlier bomb. a french aircraft and realized that it was libyan, not other sources. it took several years assemble all the for forensics of the bombing of the marine compound in beirut in 1983 and find out

who was involved and lots of different factors, wasn't as simple as it seems. the forensics on what happened in libya will be critical, bringing together intelligence they get through the air, from the drones, the kind of noise as they talk about from -- >> let's not pretend libyan -- this is a glen ling government t is not as if they have the -- theft institutions like we have, the fbi, cia, dni, things like that i mean, they have some intelligence, but it's scattered, is it not? >> this government was only like theed in july. the prime minister was appointed the day of the attack. they are really scrambling to -- and you are dealing with a government that has to deal with 300 militias. the security situation really troubled. >> talk about the larger question here. seeing all the protests, is it a fair question to be asking. we are in the middle of a presidential campaign. president obama as candidate obama said his first major speech overseas was going to be in an arab capital.

it was, in kai row, i was at that speech. are we, the u.s. relationship with the arab world better now than four years ago? >> i think it is in some ways. the reality is that the obama administration may -- took a very strong stand early on in walking away from hosni mubarak, the president of egypt who had been a stalwart am lie for 30 years and it was the right decision. he acknowledged the people power. what we also have to remember. the protests so far in egypt morning libya, were all version very small, particularly in comparison with the hundreds of thousands, even millions who turned now the protests to demand an end to the regimes. you also find this happening in context of defining a newed orrer in the region and it is the ultraconservatives responsible, ultraconservatives and extremists find they are being marginalized and striking doubt say we are players, don't ignore us, see what we can do. >> interesting, our friend, bureau chief, basically saying to me, hey this is local

politics. the united states is getting drawn into a theologic debate. that is a mistake. is he right? >> i think that is true. this is a fight in the islamic world. far less islam versus the west and increasely true for theast 30 years. this is as they struggle to figure out how you blend the principles of a -- of the 21st century with their own cultural traditions. >> you said in some ways. that mean there is as there are things are not better muslim world? >> the film is associated with u.s. government policy. >> there's still some perception of america? >> in the same way a lot of americans look at the islamic world and say you get these few people in front of an embassy, that must mean they all hate us and the reality is they don't. >> robin wright, you are the author of the books "the islami islamists are coming." good to have your perspective, thank you. all right occupy anniversary

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on our radar this morning, another twist in the wisconsin union fight a birthday party for the occupy movement and legal threats kick off week two of the

chicago teachers strike. that's right. week two. up first though, protesters are gathering near the new york stock exchange this morning in an attempt to reignite momentum for the occupy wall street movement and celebrate the start of that movement, which, believe it or not is just a year old the push largely disintegrated last november when police officers evicted protesters from the zuccotti park in lower manhattan. today there are plans for marches and rallies in more than 30 cities around the world. in chicago, mayor rahm emanuel is turning to the courts to try to end the teachers strike that left students out of the classroom for a full week and now today, teachers thought they would be back at school by now but decide they had needed more time to evaluate and talk over a deal that had been pet in principle. right now the strike is expected to last through at least tuesday. and remember wisconsin, you know that law that limited union bargaining rights, sparked months of protests, recall elections that whole thing with scott walker?

apparently struck down a county judge said that sections of the law infringed on rights provided in both the which is and us constitution. propone pro-pon nents were ecstatic, declaring victory. governor walker vowed to repeal the ruling you and said the judge is a liberal activist. deja vu all over again. looks like enthusiasm for the third round of the fed's quantitative easing effort isn't lasting too long. futures are pointing to a lower open on wall street today but since we are minutes away from the opening bet, get a quick market run down. cnbc's hampton pearson is heer . why is the market lower? >> just had the opening bell, friday closed a at stellar week for stocks, dow jumping 53 points to close at 13,593, 2% begin for the week, nasdaq up to 2,183, powered by an all-time high for am. some of that momentum seems to have run dry today. all three stock indexes pointed for a lower owe. shifting gears, it is not even

on the store shelves yet, expect record lines for apple's newest iphone when it goes on sale friday. the line course match those for the first generation of the device when it was released back in 2007. outside apple's iconic fifth avenue store in new york, believe it or not, a line has already started forming. a different kind of sticker shock awaiting mcdonald's customers nationwide. today, mcdonald's will begin posting calorie counts on all the ven news. the move comes as part of the health care lawmaker the highest calorie item, no, not the big mac. the top spot to the big breakfast, clocking in at 1,150 calories. chuck, a different kind of food for thought, if you will. >> i would have gone with that angus burger because it is like dropped with mayor and cheese. but, all right, if you say so. all right, hampton. thanks very much. daily run down will be back in 30 seconds.

in today's deep dive, going to go back four years to 2008. it was an extraordinary seven-day period that transformed the financial industry, sent markets plunging and brought the nation to the brink of a second great depression. it started on sunday you september 14, 2008, when bank of america agreed to acquire the massive brokerage firm merrill lynch for $50 billion to save merrill from collapse. then, before dawn on monday, second body blow, lehman brothers folds, filing for the largest bankruptcy in u.s. history and setting the stage for dramatic day on wall street. here's the "today" show and cnbc's maria bartiromo in the

hours before the opening bell. >> good morning. meltdown a financial tsunami engulfing some of the nation's biggest moneymakers. >> the near-term fallout we are looking a at severe selloff on global markets today. the u.s. stock market under pressure as people worry about the ripple effects of the lehman bankruptcy sand what will happen with aig. >> by the time the day was over, the dow had plummeted more than 500 points. the very next night, another shoc the insurance company, aig, you heard maria talk about there, had to be rescued from collapse by the federal government in the form of an $85 billion loan. five days later, the company's last two investment banks, goldman sachs and morgan stanley, were transformed into bank holding condition, capped a week in which four of wall street's largest institutions had disappeared and the largest insurance company in america was on life support. the sudden crisis took out -- took the bottom out of an already shaky stock market a week later, a somber president bush said help was coming that decisive action took shape in

the form, of course, of t.a.r.p. the $700 billion program designed to prop up some of the country's biggest institutions. on the political front, the issue had jumped to the top of the agenda for the plight cam candidates, barack obama and john mccain. mccain famously called for a white house meeting with his opponent and president bush, a move that backfired when mccain said and did little at the meeting. the markets were still in free fall when barack obama was inaugurated in january. he signed the economic stimulus bill within a month of being sworn into office. wall street's slide couldn't officially hit bottom until march. since then, however, the market has climbed all the way back. leading indicators now sit at or near multiyear highs. but the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis is still being felt on wall street and still being debated on the campaign trail. mitt romney has repeatedly criticized the president's stimulus legislation and pledged to repeal today-frank passed in 2010 in an effort to prevent another wall street crisis.

andrew ross soson co-author of "squawk box" and columnist for the knock times and wrote the book "too big to fail" about the financial crisis of 2008. so, andrew -- >> i got tell you it gave me chills watching you introduce this segment. it is remarkable. >> is it better than four years ago? >> the short answer is yes, there are a multitude of issues from the financial industry itself and the broader economy, both here and in europe and how that ultimately berefound us, think of unemployment and the like. you think about financial institution, wall street, there is no question that today, four years later, we are better off in that we have a lot more stability.

we do have some regulations that should keep this type of thing from happening again. that's not to say we won't have -- >> going to say though, your book famously titled "too big to fail," the movie that came with it, feels like we sometime have institutions too big to fame. >> no question, i call them too big to fame squared. we have banks today twice as big as they used to be because in part, part, one of the solutions, i use that word loosely, the crisis, we mernld the smaller banks to the bigger banks, we created even bicker banks. you look at a jpmorgan, city groups, bank of america, whatever have, no question, one were to fail today, we could creating a cascading domino affect, having said that, here is the good news, most of those institutions have a lot more capital against them. forget about the regulation, it was the capital that changed

this story in that they have a rainy day fund they didn't have four years ago. >> talk about t.a.r.p. $700 billion. we know that was the cost of the fund, full, the amount of overall money that the federal government was making hay available. how much got used? how much was paid back? >> the good and bad knew not all $700 billion were used. >> not all of it was ever used, right? only used about -- >> a little over $400 billion. so far, from the big banks, as you know, are it appears that is profitable, money outstanding from the banks, fanny and freddy behind that not part of t.a.r.p., but nonetheless, as a taxpayer, tough consider. just last week, we received money back from aig which potentially, depending on how do you the math, makes it appear we got a small profit. we haven't made money yet on the autos and unlikely to do some the bigger question, in my mind

is did t.a.r.p. work? did t.a.r.p. fundamentally stabilize the system, keep the patient from flat lining? one is yes, did we die? we did not die was t.a.r.p. part of a rehab program, not sure if it's measured against that -- that worked in the same way and that's why i think four years later and i imagine 10, 20, 30 years later, there will sometime be questions. >> swault healthy, main street isn't. >> that is clear. and that is a problem and that i think is one of the reasons people have so many questions. >> dow 108%. i want to show the graphic we are showing, up 108% since match 2009, 151% of nasdaq, s and p, 117%. if people still have money in their 401(k)s that's great again, main street. >> so many people took their money out of the market so many people didn't have money in the market, the number that matters

to them is the unemployment figure. when you look at those stock figures, the big issue. the reason we got into this financial crisis in the first place is we had banks that were too juiced, there was too much leverage, too much debt in the system, you look at where we are today, the banks themselves don't have that problem, but who has that problem? we will watch the federal reserve inflate u some people call this a sugar high the same issue in europe. people say there a sequel to where we were four years ago, we might have one it may not be the financial industry per se but actually, a much big perhaps even too big to solve financial problem. >> i imagine the united states government is too big to fame. andrew ross sorkin, thank you very much. good to have you on. >> great to see you. team romney kicks off the week, an aggressive push for hispanic voters but will reportness of a rift inside

romney's campaign cause another distraction, a la last week? our monday political panel is next. but first, guys, come on, it's fall. i felt the breeze. white house soup of the day gazpacho? lame. you can do better than this. you can follow the show on facebook, poke us and like us. hi guys, look, you are on camera. so pretend you are happy to be here. ♪ ♪ [ multiple sounds making melodic tune ] ♪ [ male announcer ] at northrop grumman, every innovation, every solution, comes together for a single purpose -- to make the world a safer place. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. o0 c1 put me at 5 timesd out my greater risk of a stroke,

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it's all about change. the kids are going back to school, it's the perfect time to get back to you. to do something for yourself. a perfect time to join weight watchers. you spend your life taking care of others, why not take this time to take care of you? why not join weight watchers and start losing weight and feeling good, right now? you deserve it. you just gotta believe. join for free. weight watchers. because it works. ♪ believe in yourself daily flashback this day in 1976, that's right, that's when the first prototype of the space shut, 1970s technology, originally, it was to be named "the constitution." president gerald ford requested the name be changed to "enterprise" after "star trek" fans launch adler-writing campaign asking the orbiter to be named after the famous starship "enterprise." you think we are making this up.

there they are. my god, i'm a doctor, jim, not a neighbor of space shuttles. just 50 days until the election, the romney campaign showed signs of infighting and politico's story has several unnamed sources pointing the finger at campaign strategist stuart stevens so far. it includes romney not talking about afghanistan and iraq during the convention speech, along with the infamous distraction of the clint eastwood appearance. bring in our monday panel, dan balz, claire page, the mainstream media well represented here. dan balz, it is september. a conversation with joe klein this morning, said i'm having september 2004 flashbacks, the parade of clinton people came in to rescue the kerry campaign, bob shrum said everybody is losing this race.

are they trying to push stuart out or get a message to stuart? >> governor romney likes his counsel. they are an odd couple. two distinctly different personals i. >> felix and oscar. >> worked harmoniously throughout the campaign. he's a lightning rod. he is a character. but a lot else in that campaign, so, there's infighting in a campaign. surprise. there's always infighting in a campaign. it comes out at times of stress and as versity and the romney campaign's about going through one. >> jackie, there are a couple of stuart sympathizers who will say to me, um, let's remember this guy guided the candidate through a republican primary process with a moderate mormon from massachusetts. and if somebody had told you that a moderate mormon from massachusetts could get the republican nomination in 2012, they would tell you you were

smoking something. >> absolutely. that's why the talk, i can't imagine he would be let go now i mean, that was a process that, you know, built up confidence in mitt romney if he lacked any at the time. just, you know, they knew what stuart stevens, who stuart stevens is and what he's like. like dan indicated, when you get into these homes of stress, you know, the knives come out. but as the politico story itself acknowledged, you know, if you want to look at the problems the romney campaign is having right now, you don't need to look much farther than the candidate himself. so to blame stuart stevens is -- >> clarence that is the thing that i think people don't understand. this is mitt romney's way of management, he wanted to runt campaign, he is more involved in things than people realize you had. >> your bringing you up the primaries is significant. look hoe was running against,

the anybody but romney movement. he was able to cobble together enough folks, delegates and states to get the nomination by staying resolute, by standing as mitt romney, unwavering and all, even though he had wavered a lot in the past. for months now, we have watched him in pretty much a dead heat against an incumbent who ought to be, the way the economy is, the a least ten points behind. and he is not. >> that's what makes this, sort of hand-wringing, pointed to jennifer ruin, writes the right turn column in the washingtonpost.com, eric erickson, hand-wringing about the state of the campaign. the president, in the heady days here, so dominant, at 49 or 50. not as if he is at 55, this thing is over. >> no. and i think a rush last week in the wake of the democratic convention on the part of a lot of people to sort of say, is this race over? some of these republicans? begun to tighten again. some of what president obama got

was convention bounce. that begins to -- >> bounces happen. they are called bounces because what goes up does come down. >> chuck, i think the key question, we don't quite know it yet, was obama able to get one to two points of real gain on romney? because in this environment in which we have seen a very stage race for so long, if you can get that advantage, that is pretty significant this year. we don't know quite yet. looks like he has gotten a little bit, but not as much as a week ago. >> jackie, seems the larger debate among, people criticizing the romney campaign, looked like the last few weeks they looked like a campaign worried about, all right in virginia, women talk about the sequester in florida we will talk about medicare in this state, we will talk about this and now this week with it sort of -- the campaign is acknowledging, no, no, no, we got to went larger argument and the states will follow. >> mystified people that they haven't just, you know, trained in like a laser on the economy and what's going wrong there and

goes back to when he picked paul ryan to be the vice presidential pick that, you know, a lot of the conservatives in the base were happy that because they thought it is going to be about policy, it is going to be things like remake the entitlement programs but that took, you know, a lot of discussion, people like me in the press write more about those things, they need to get back to the economy. >> you know, i guess go back, what was the secret sauce to clinton? was it a laser-like focus or did he win a larger argument? >> different circumstances with clinton but he -- largely, it was the larger argument, of course, it's the economy stupid and get the kind of programs together that are going to bring together a lot of -- a very diverse constituency. romney has not done that and he -- well, he is speaking to the hispanic chamber of commerce today. that's part of his effort to try to build a larger -- >> when we come back, we will go to the foreign policy, how the

obama white house is handling that. we asked our monday trivia question, like the monday "new york times" cross word, the easy one, which state is the birth play of the most u.s. presidents? of course, virginia, leads the way with eight presidents. washington, jefferson, madison, monroe, harrison, tyler, taylor and then, of course, only one in the 20th century, woodrow do you have a trivia question we should use? e-mail us. we'll be right back. does your phone give you all day battery life ?

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let's bring back the panel. we've talked about romney sort of undersieging his own campaign. but it's a full-fledged foreign policy crisis going on right now. if these protests don't go away soon, this becomes a bigger and bigger problem for the president

in the campaign, does it not? >> it does. i think the economy is the dominant issue and will continue to be the dominant issue. it's not clear how much the foreign policy crisis have risen in the minds of the voters. but if this goes on, it will. and if it goes on, it will hurt the president. >> when your strength becomes a weakness, if it hits that, that's why there are some conservatives advocating, go -- to romney, go at this full-fledged f. you get rid of his strength, you get your carter narrative that they're desperately searching for. >> absolutely. if you layer on -- if you've had foreign policy and economic policy and you have doubts in the majority of americans' minds, it's hard to see you're going to get another lease on the white house. that said, when you say romney ice got to go all at it, he better do it more deftly than he did it last week or else he's going. because he's the candidate that has to give americans a reason to fire the incumbent and trust him to fill the chair. and he did not do that last week.

>> clarence, he's supposedly going to make a series of speeches on this. i assume one will be framed at the president on this. does the president need to be sort of making a bigger speech to sort of explain his view of what's going on -- >> well, the thing is, as far as foreign policy is concerned, if these protests are directed against the united states, it's a problem for obama. if they are the result of internal fighting within the muslim world, as it was explained so well earlier in this program, it becomes the situation where do the voters want to change horses in midstream. and romney has to come up with a better alternative policy, that's going to be more attractive. i don't think this is necessarily as big of a problem for obama. we have to wait and see. >> shameless plug time. clarence? >> i want to give a plug to rahm emanuel for seeking an injunction in the strike in chicago. no reason why they can't go back to the table and talk.

first strike in 25 years. both sides, a lot of egos going on. we need to get the kids back in school. >> jackie? >> interesting, we have two in chicago-based shameless plugs. i plug anything that monica davy of "the new york times" writes out of chicago and the middle west including her coverage of the strike. >> and dan? an illini grad? >> plug for this weekend's national book festival on the national mall, saturday and sunday. >> it is. if you could just download everything, just -- i'd want to be able to browse and download at the same time. that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown." happy new year to my injury friends out there. see you tomorrow. coming up next, chris jansing. a, olaf's pizza palace gets the most rewards of any small business credit card! pizza!!!!! [ garth ] olaf's small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! helium delivery. put it on my spark card!

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and you are. i was talking to my best friend. i told her i wasn't feeling like myself... i had pain in my pelvic area... and bleeding that wasn't normal for me. she said i had to go to the doctor. turned out i had uterine cancer, a type of gynecologic cancer. i received treatment and we're confident i'll be fine. please listen to your body. if something doesn't feel right for two weeks or longer, see your doctor. get the inside knowledge about gynecologic cancers. knowing can make all the difference in the world. good morning. i'm chris jansing. 50 days before the election, mitt romney's campaign is now